A bit more of a serious Santa

 Less of a fun Claus and more of a "I think you're on my Naughty List" Santa.

Just gimme that wink

 Santa being a bit sly.

Thanksgiving wiped out The Black Hand Group, so...

...I'll post a few more of the Christmas sketches that are currently up for sale at Roots.

The most fun image I did

 The show consists of 18 framed drawings, two framed oil sketches and one canvas tapestry (like the witches and ravens I did for the Fall shows).  This is the most whimsical image I did.  Mounted in a simple red, small profile table frame, this drawing gives Santa the feel that he's pressing his face against a window while checking to see if the good little boys and girls left him his fee of cookies and milk.

A little oil sketch

 Leyendecker oil copy on a small 5x7 canvas.  Love playing with the simple strokes and big shapes.

A "real" Santa

 I combined what I've learned from Leyendecker and Sundblom and applied it to a photo of an actor playing Santa.  Pretty happy with the result.

Another Santa

 Another favorite copy.  I say copy because, and I make no bones about it, most of my drawings are from existing illustrations of the great Joseph Christian Leyendecker and Haddon Sundblom.  I do reference photos for some but I tend to fall into giving the people what they are comfortable with, which are familiar versions of Santa.  Leyendecker and Sundblom (the Coca-Cola Santa creator) are, in my opinion, the best of those that gave us the most wonderful Santa Claus illustrations.

No life drawing last week so I'll share some of the stuff I'm doing for a holiday show at Roots

 

This is a little 5x7 in charcoal and conte.  Probably my favorite sketch this year.  This and the others I'll show on the blog this week will be available at Roots, (2147 Poly Drive, Billings, MT) starting Thursday, November 2.  I'll be there for a bit until I run off to do more figure drawing that evening.

It's that time of year again...

I'm in the middle of my annual blitzkrieg of Santa drawings.  This time they will be displayed and on sale at The Moss Mansion starting sometime in early November.  This one is a little 4x4 pencil sketch on toned paper with conté accents and white pastel.

That time of year again

I've been cranking out Santa art for weeks now.  It's finally coming to an end.

Last Night in the studio

Worked on this while sitting on the couch in front of HGTV.  Lots of mistakes.  Luckily it is just a prep sketch.

And so it begins.  Trying to get a jump on the annual "Santa Sketches" that I sell at our gallery during the holidays.

Cookies & Milk

The final painting for this year's Moss Mansion raffle.

Santa for the Moss

This is a piece I just finished for a raffle at the Moss Mansion this Saturday. They wanted Santa in front of one of their many fireplaces and so...

Smaller version

I posted a larger, more finished version of this one earlier. Hope you don't mind.

'tis the Season

Too lazy to take pics of the drawings I did today. Here's another Santa.

Did this last night

Not sure I'll post the other one I did last night, though.

Dreamin' of the fat man

Another Claus sketch, this one is 4 x 4.

Ho Ho Huh?

Sheesh, it's only November 1. It's going to be a long road to Christmas.

'tis the season

So in the interests of preserving what few drawings I have left (since we may not be meeting for the entire month of November) I'm going to put up some drawings that I am doing for our store's annual Christmas push. Seems that the little charcoal sketches I did to fill frames we were selling became more popular than the frames and now it is expected when Christmas time arrives (the day, or more correctly, second that Halloween is over. Don't get me going on this subject...) that there are 20 or more Santa Claus drawings on display. I'll get started with this one. Enjoy.